On the Job
by jackyyy17
Summary: Mara Jade Skywalker is staying on Yavin and Luke decides that she needs to teach a class. Cowritten with CelinaMarniss
1. Never Get Bored

**On the Job**

by: CelinaMarniss & jackyyy17

**Timeframe:** Pre NJO

**Genre:** humor

**Summary: **Mara Jade Skywalker is staying on Yavin and Luke decides that she needs to teach a class.

**Disclaimer:** We don't own Luke or Mara, or anything to do with Star Wars. They belong to Lucas (Lucky him)

* * *

"So you're really going to be on Yavin for a while?" Luke asked his wife in disbelief as she scurried around the room, unpacking her belongings.

"Yeah, I am. Karrde said that I could work from here for a while." Mara smiled at her husband of three years. Had it really been that long? Sometimes it was hard to tell. Ever since they had been married, Mara spent more time away from Luke then she did with him.

She had spent the last three years transferring duties to other members of Karrde's organization. Finally, she was left with only a few responsibilities, and could spend time with her husband, even if it was at the Academy.

"You know Luke, I really am glad that I will get to spend more time with you, don't get me wrong, but do we really have to stay on Yavin? You know we have a perfectly good apartment waiting for us on Coruscant."

It was true. Their apartment in Coruscant was much better, in Mara's opinion, then their rooms in the Academy. At least at Coruscant you didn't have to worry about wild animals, or snakes, or pests, the extreme humidity… Unless, of course, Leia and Han's children where home. In that case, you had to worry about the three pests that tended to act like wild animals, and who would occasionally bring home snakes for pets.

"Mar, you know I can't leave the Academy just yet." Luke smiled at Mara and helped her unpack some of her belongings. "There are still some young Jedi that haven't been paired with Masters yet."

Luke, in the past few years, had been changing the teaching style at the Academy. There were still classes being taught, but after a certain level, the student would then be paired with a Master to continue their training, much like the Jedi Academy of the Old Republic.

"Can't Tionne do it?"

"You know good and well that if I left Tionne in charge here, I would never get away from the Holocom."

Mara couldn't help but laugh. She finished hanging the last bit of clothing in the closet and went to sit on the bad. Luke followed. "Fine, I'll stay on Yavin," She sighed in defeat.

"So, in the meantime, what can two bored people do to pass the time?" Mara smiled seductively. She turned to Luke and started to nuzzle his neck.

"I'm not bored Mara, but maybe tonight." Luke stood, leaving Mara to fall, "But if you're bored, you could always try passing the time teaching a class. We need a new Galactic Economics teacher. The class starts tomorrow after lunch. I'll get you a class agenda." He winked at her, and walked out the room.

Mara lay on the bed, at a loss for words. By the time she recovered, Luke was gone. "Thanks a lot Skywalker."

TBC


	2. Planning Session

**On the Job**

by CelinaMarnniss

**Chapter II – Planning Session **

Mara sat at her desk, looking at the material that was scattered there.

Luke had been good to his word, and by the time Mara was back from eating supper at the Academy Cafeteria, everything a person could possible need to teach a class was laying on her desk. There were holo text books, several datapads's, a teaching manual and the answer guide. _That will be helpful._

Luke had even thought to give her an Ithorian blue skinned apple, but why Mara needed that to teach Economies, she had no idea. _Perhaps a snack?_

Grabbing a datapad that was on the top of the stack, one that was marked "Important," Mara found a list of teaching instructions left by Luke.

"So now, I guess, he doesn't think I know how to teach, and that I need instructions? How hard could it be to teach a bunch of Jedi wannabes?"

She read over a couple of the instructions:

_**1.** Everything you need to teach is in the teaching manuals. Use this manual to plan and prepare for your classes._

_**2.** Everything in the holo text books must be covered by the end of the semester. You can, and will need__to_

_create the schedule __of what __you plan to teach the class on what days, to get through the whole book. _

_**3.** Homework is very important to the students and I can't stress hard enough how important it is to assign the _

_students __homework __as much as possible…_

"This is boring Skywalker," Mara said to the datapad, not even bothering to finish reading the rest of it.

She then grabbed a datapad marked "Student Role & Grades." According to it, there would be exactly fifteen students, roughly around the age of twelve. _Isn't that around the age of the Solo twins? _She looked for Jacen and Jaina's name on the role, but they were not listed. "That's probably for the better."

She picked up the holo text book and started skimming through it. "According to this, there are twenty-seven chapters in the text books, and we'll have thirty days of class to cover it. Well, that's a no brainer. I'll make them read a chapter a day, and then well will even have a few days left over."

Mara piled everything into a neat little stack at the corner of her desk. "Well, that was easy."

She turned on her computer. "Lesson plan complete! And Luke thought this would be to hard for me."

Mara spent the next few hours playing Spider Solitaire.

Finally, around twenty-three hundred hours, she turned off the computer and headed to the sleeping quarters.

Luke was already in bed, bare-chested, and covered with a sheet. "Hey Mar, what were you doing?" Mara could tell he had been waiting for her.

"Oh, I was just getting my lesson plan together," she lied. She changed into her night shirt and laid down on her back, on her side of the bed.

Luke turned over to her and started to place feather kisses along her neck and jawbone.

"Not tonight, Farmboy." She turned onto her side facing the wall, with her back to Luke. "Big day for me tomorrow, you know. I need to sleep."

_Payback's a bitch, ain't it Skywalker,_ Mara thought with a smirk, remembering earlier that day.

She heard Luke sigh in disappointment and shift back to his side of the bed.

"Goodnight Mara," he told her.

"Goodnight Luke."

TBC


	3. Class Starts

**On the Job**

by CelinaMarnniss

**Chapter III – Class Starts**

Mara arrived right at the start of class, neither early nor late. She settled in the desk at the front of the room. All fifteen students were seated in their desks already, with three rows of five students.

Mara began taking supplies out of her bag, and arranged them neatly on her desk. She noticed a yellow Yavin Flower-Apple sitting in the left hand corner of the desk. _What is the big deal with the apples?_ "Did someone leave this up here?" She asked.

A small, auburn haired human boy with pale freckles, timidly raised his hand.

"What?" She said a little louder than necessary.

"I brought it for you Ma'am."

There was a low mummer of noise from the class, sounding like "teachers pet" and "suck up." The boy seemed to shrink in his chair.

Mara glared at the students and they immediately shut up. "Enough of that. Let's begin with the lesson." She picked up her holo text book and got it to the first chapter. The students followed suit, and got their text books out too.

"Okay, read the first chapter."

The human boy raised his hand, and said, "Ma'am, usually we read out loud."

"Fine. Who'll begin reading?" Mara asked. The togruta girl sitting in the front row raised her hand. Mara nodded to the girl, and she started to read about "The Role and Methods of Galactic Economics"

The reading went pretty smoothly at first. A few of the students volunteered to read. Mara noticed it was mostly the girls who would read, but a few boys raised their hands too. And no one had fallen asleep yet, but there were a few students, especially those in the back row, who were getting droopy. Mara was beginning to get bored and tired as well. _Is it always this boring?_ She wondered.

About half way through the first chapter, the students stopped raising their hands to read, Mara was stuck with the job. She got through one page, before deciding she didn't have to do this so she told the students to read quietly to themselves.

The class started to read, or at least stare at the holo, but that lasted about five minutes. Apparently they though Galactic Economics was boring too.

So Mara sat at the front of the room, staring at the Jedi students who were in turn staring back at her. _At least the class wasn't cutting up or being loud_, Mara mused. But she could sense an underlying fear of upsetting her.

The time seemed to pass by very slowly, and after what seemed like an eternity, Mara asked, "How much longer do we have left in this class?"

A small, dark-furred Chadra-Fan boy timidly raised his hand and said very sheepishly, "It ended about 15 minutes ago Ma'am."

Mara's face was expressionless, but deep down she was embarrassed that time had slipped away from her. "Then I guess class is dismissed," she announced. _Wait, Luke had said something about assigning them homework._

The students were already getting out of their seats, when she said, "Hold on a minute."

They stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Mara. "What do Master Skywalker and the other teachers usually assign for homework?"

A tan-furred Bothan girl answered, "Sometimes we have assignments to work on, like reading a few posts in the holocube and answering questions…"

An older Zabrak boy quickly interrupted, "But we usually don't get assigned anything."

To which a human boy argued, "Yes we do. You just don't want to do any homework Nerppa."

"And your just a teachers pet, Cayden," Nerppa shot back. An argument broke throughout the class, as students voiced their opinions about homework. Most didn't want any, and Mara couldn't really blame them.

But the arguing got old fast. Mara had had enough, the faster she assigned homework, the faster she could leave "Hey! That's enough. I know you guys get homework, and if you don't, well too bad. You're getting some today. All I want to know is what you usually get assigned."

This time the Chadra-Fan answered, "Most of the time we are assigned to meditate with the Force over what we learned."

The boy, Cayden, began to open his mouth, but before he could say anything Mara spoke. "That last thing sounds good. Do that." Before anybody else could reply or argue, Mara was out the door.

TBC


	4. A Few Pointers

**On the Job**

by CelinaMarnniss

**Chapter IV – A Few Pointers**

Mara wasn't in the best of moods when she made her way from the classroom, back to the apartment she shared with Luke.

She opened the door to find Luke sitting on the living room sofa. He was looking over a datapad, but Mara could tell he was waiting for her to come home.

"Your home a little late," he informed her.

"Yeah, I took a walk after the class."

"How'd it go?" he asked.

Mara sat down on the couch, next to him, and tried to act causal. "It was good, Farmboy. I had no problems at all."

Luke eyed her skeptically. "Really?"

"Everything went fine, Skywalker. Really. So can we talk about something else?"

Luke eyed her a moment longer, as if trying to find out what she was really thinking. Mara reflexively threw up her mental shields. For a moment she feared he would try to push for more information. But almost reluctantly he sighed and went back to the datapad.

They were silent for a moment. Mara was the first to speak. "Is there some importance to the apple?"

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, a little taken aback by the question. That was something he wasn't expecting.

"Well, at first I thought you were just leaving me a snack last night, with my lesson plans. But then one of the students gave me an apple today. Is their something about the apple that I am missing here?"

"Well, the apple… Look, I'm not sure how to explain the role of the apple in the classroom, other than it is sort of a tradition to give teachers apples on the first day of classes."

"Why haven't I heard of this tradition?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly popular during Palpatine's reign, but since I lived on Tatooine, I grew up around the practice. I'm a little surprised that some students still do that. Who gave it to you?"

"The scrawny, little human boy. Cayden, I think. They referred to him as 'Teacher's Pet.' Can I assume that that's someone who is a suck-up to the teacher?"

"Something like that," Luke said in a low, disdained voice.

"Let me guess. You were called teachers pet too." It wasn't a question. Luke flushed a little. "Interesting," She smirked. It was fun to get him riled up. The Force knows he didn't get like this often. "So, is there anything else I should know about teaching?"

Luke thought about it for a moment. "Lets see. Well, there is the 'Bookworm,' that's someone who likes to read ahead…"

"I doubt anybody will be doing that. Galactic Economics is boring stuff."

"…There is the class clown. That's the..."

"I know what a class clown is, Farmboy."

"…and the bully, but I'm sure you know about bullying too." He smiled innocently at her.

"That would be the Zabrak boy," she said matter-of-factly.

"You have Nerppa in your class? Watch out for him. He can be a handfull."

"Don't worry about me. I'm sure WE'LL be just fine," she said with a glint of mischief in her eyes. She stood, and started to leave.

"Hey Mara," Luke called after her.

She turned to face him. "Yeah?"

"You know you're not allowed to kill any of the students, right?"

Her only response was to smile and wink.

TBC


	5. Day Two

**On the Job**

by CelinaMarnniss

**Chapter IV – Day Two**

Mara got to class the next day exactly on time. She looked around at all the students sitting in their desks. One desk was empty. Someone was missing. "Who's not here today?" she asked.

"Well, you could always take the role, and find out." One of the human boys, Earlo, informed her.

She glared at Earlo, and he sunk in his chair. "Or you could just tell me who's missing."

"Tai'geo," the class said in union.

Ah, the Wroonian. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" The students shook their heads. "Good, then let's get on with the lesson. How many of you finished reading that first chapter?"

Only Cayden raised his hand.

"Teachers pet," Nerppa riled him but the boy just smiled smugly.

_Little brat_, Mara couldn't help but think. She decided to ignore them both.

A skinny, human girl's hand shot into the air.

"Did you read the lesson too?" Nerppa moved on to his next victim. Mara gave him a warning glare.

"What do you want…" she started to ask the girl, but left off at her name.

"Livvie, Ma'am."

"What do you want, Livvie?"

"Are we going to have a quiz over this chapter? Please don't make us have a quiz. I didn't know we were supposed to read it. I'm not ready." She was clearly panicked. _Poor kid. _

"A quiz?" Mara asked.

"Yeah! All the other teachers give us quizzes over the chapters we were supposed to read to see who is doing their work," Cayden threw a glanced indicating Nerppa, "and who isn't."

Nerppa just smiled mischievously.

"Not ALL of the teachers give us quizzes, Cayden," the Togruta girl, Krisha, refuted.

"Well, they should," he retaliated.

"Enough! I'm not the other teachers, okay!" The class went eerily silent at the outburst. "There will be no quiz today."

"Well you should. Master Skywalker wouldn't…"

"Master Skywalker has nothing to do with this, Cayden." Mara was starting to get fed up with the boy. She could just see herself strangling him. _Where does he get the nerve? _"Another outburst from you, and I will give you detention. Understand?"

"Yes Ma'am." Cayden relented, but added under his breath, "But I still don't think that Master Skywalker would agree."

Mara glared at Caydan, catching his last comment. She clamed her emotions. "Get your text books out. We'll start reading where we left off," she said between clenched teeth. _Before I do something I might regret,_ she added to herself.

------------------------

Luke was sitting on the couch, yet again, when Mara made her way home.

"Hey love, how'd it go?" he asked her.

"Fine," she answered him, rubbing her temple slowly.

Luke studied her. "You don't look fine. Did Nerppa give you any problems? He can be a handful..."

"Nerppa? Are you kidding me. He wasn't even close to being the problem. It's that little know it all, teachers pet, Cayden, who is annoying me."

"Mara, you realize that teachers are generally supposed like the teachers pet."

"You know I'm not like normal teachers, Luke."

"So you side with the bully? The teachers pet at least does their work and helps the teacher out."

"Speaking from personal experience, Farmboy?" Mara smirked.

Luke's face flushed, and Mara kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't worry about me. If I befriend any student, it will most likely be Nerppa. At least I don't want to sock him... Yet." She smirked, and left Luke sitting there flabbergasted.

TBC


End file.
